KEY POINTS:
Herald rating: * * *
Cast: Josh Hartnett, Melissa George
Director: David Slade
Running Time: 114 mins
Rating: R16 (violence, offensive language, horror scenes)
Screening: SkyCity, Hoyts and Berkeley Cinemas
Verdict: A failed attempt at making a high-brow vampire flick, but good fun anyway
Thirty Days of Night is a horror flick based on the comic book miniseries of the same name by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith. The film might star American heartthrob Josh Hartnett and Aussie actress Melissa George, but the real attraction of this film, set in Alaska and yet mostly shot in New Zealand, is seeing some of our very own acting talent on the big screen, usually just before their heads are ripped off by ravenous vampires.
The film is set in Barrow, an isolated town in the northernmost part of the frozen state which is without sunshine for one month a year. That makes it the perfect place for a small tribe of vampires to hole up and set about depleting the town's population.
With the airport closed, the only helicopter in town mysteriously vandalised, and all the local sled dogs slaughtered, vampires descend on the town, intent on removing the head from each of their victims and systematically work their way through the townspeople.
Sheriff Eben Oleson (Harnett) manages to gather up a few of the surviving locals, including his little brother Jake (Mark Rendall), local doctor Doug Heitz (Joel Tobeck), waitress Lucy Ikos (Elizabeth Hawthorne), the attractive Denise (Amber Sainsbury), Wilson Bulosan (Craig Hall) and his father Issac (Chic Littlewood), and together they hide out in an attic, trying to outlive the vampires until sunrise.
There is no doubt director David Slade (Hard Candy) knows how to get a fright out of you, but like most horrors it's hard to maintain the intensity of the frights once you've seen the evil characters at work.
The film has a dark and brooding tone that goes beyond the fact it's shot in the dark. It's implied that each character is more complex than just being the next victim, and that they have interestingly mysterious backgrounds.
Unfortunately we're left guessing as to exactly what those stories might be. Adding to this serious tone is a lack of the usual tension-relieving horror film laughs. Personally, I could have done with one.
The lack of substance to the characters, combined with clunky editing and story confusion or an explanation of where the flesh-eating vampires came from means 30 Days of Night fails to be more that just a formulaic horror.
It's a great idea, there are plenty of frights, plenty of gore and the pace keeps cracking along, but it feels like much has been held back for the sequel.
